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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

NASA TV Carrying Next Space Station Crew's Launch

On June 15, Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA flight engineers Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker will launch on the Soyuz TMA-19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

They will dock to the ISS June 17, joining Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortsov, NASA flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Roscosmos flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko, who have been aboard the station since April 4.

Upcoming NASA TV broadcasts (all times CDT):

June 13

11 a.m. -- Video File of activities in Baikonur, including Soyuz rocket mating and rollout to the launch pad

June 14

4 p.m. -- Video File of the final prelaunch news conference and Russian State Commission Meeting in Baikonur

The State Commission held its meeting on Monday, June 14, 2010, at the Baikonur launch site where the primary and backup crews for Soyuz TMA-19 were approved and the readiness of the space launcher system was confirmed.

The crew poster was also shown. Per Doug Wheelock, the poster honors "great moments in U.S.-Russian partnership; 'Meeting at the Elbe' and 'Apollo-Soyuz.'"

Credit: Roscosmos

Credit: Doug Wheelock/NASA

hoorenz

The poster was designed by Dima Shcherbinin of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. These posters, a tradition by now, are a Roscosmos initiative.

Dima also designed the TMA-17 poster, as well as the final art for TMA-19's patch.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-19 launches to the space station

Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker are now International Space Station-bound after lifting off at 4:35:19 p.m. CDT Tuesday onboard Soyuz TMA-19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA TV

On course to dock on Thursday evening with the orbiting lab, the TMA-19 crew's flight marks the 100th launch to the ISS (34 space shuttles, 37 Progress, one HTV, one ATV, four Russian modules and 23 Soyuz).

Once at the station, Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Walker will join their Expedition 24 counterparts Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson for half of their five-and-a-half-month stay and then will lead the 25th increment crew until November.

Credit: NASA TV

Launched from the same pad and on the same date (by local time) as the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, 47 years ago, Walker, 45, is the 55th female enter orbit and the first United States astronaut native to Houston, Texas, home of the Johnson Space Center, Mission Control and NASA's training facilities.

When Walker joins Caldwell Dyson on the ISS, the two will represent the most women serving together on a long-duration station crew in history.

Credit: NASA TV

The first active member of the U.S. Army to live on the station, Col. Wheelock, 50, is making his second trip into space and his second visit to the ISS. As an STS-120 mission specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery in 2007, he conducted three spacewalks.

Yurchikhin, 51, is making his third trip into space and his second long-duration stay aboard the station. He flew on space shuttle Atlantis' STS-112 mission in October 2002 and spent six months aboard the station in 2007 as commander of Expedition 15.

Yurchikhin's Soyuz call sign is "Olympus."

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz TMA-19 docks with the station

Soyuz TMA-19 with Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker docked with the International Space Station's Zvezda service module at 5:21 p.m. CDT Thursday, June 17, as the two spacecraft were over the Atlantic Ocean near Argentina.

Credit: NASA TV

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

Space Station Crew Vehicle Will Move June 28 for Cargo Ship Arrival

NASA Television will broadcast live the repositioning of a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on Monday, June 28. The capsule’s half-hour journey from the Zvezda Service Module to the Rassvet Module will begin at 12:58 p.m. CDT.

Expedition 24 Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker will board the Soyuz TMA-19 vehicle that docked to Zvezda on June 18. They will fly the Soyuz vehicle a short distance to Rassvet. NASA TV coverage of the event will begin at 12:30 p.m.

The change of location will free the Zvezda port for the docking of a new Progress resupply vehicle on Friday, July 2. That port is the preferred location for the Progress, so it can help reboost the station and adjust its altitude. The Progress will carry 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies.

The resupply vehicle will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 30. NASA TV will not broadcast the launch, but will show the live coverage of Progress’ docking at 11:55 a.m. on July 2. Live coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Robert Pearlman

NASA update:

Soyuz relocation delayed

Today's relocation of the Soyuz TMA-19 from the aft end of the Zvezda service module to the Rassvet module has been temporarily delayed due to an electrical breaker problem that delayed proper orientation of one of the station's solar arrays.

Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin, Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker are in the Soyuz awaiting a "go" to undock from flight directors in Houston and Moscow.

All systems aboard the Soyuz are functioning well, but a remote power controller "fuse" had to be reset on the beta gimbal assembly latch on the 4B solar array on the P4 truss. The arrays must be locked in place for structural stability before the move can take place.

Flight directors delayed today's move for a minimum of half an hour. The Soyuz relocation will be dependent upon correct repositioning of the solar array, possibly occurring about 3:30 p.m. EDT.

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz undocks

Soyuz TMA-19 undocked from the International Space Station's (ISS) Zvezda service module at 2:13 p.m. CDT.

Fyodor Yurchikhin, Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker are now flying the spacecraft to its new berthing location on the Russian Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) Rassvet.

Credit: NASA TV

Robert Pearlman

Soyuz docks

Soyuz TMA-19 made the first ever docking to the International Space Station's (ISS) Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) Rassvet at 2:38 p.m. CDT, as the two spacecraft were flying 220 statute miles above the planet just off the coast of the Western Sahara on the west coast of Africa.

Russia's Soyuz TMA-19 spaceship with a Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronauts on board will return to Earth earlier than planned because of an OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] summit due on December 1-2 in Astana, a spokesman for Russian state-run space corporation Roscosmos said.

The spacecraft, which blasted off from the Baikonur Space Center for its half year mission on the International Space Station in June, was initially scheduled to land in Kazakhstan on November 30. But the Kazakh authorities decided to restrict air traffic several days ahead of the summit, that is why the landing of the spaceship was moved to November 26, the spokesman said.

The Soyuz TMA-19 is planned to land about 70 kilometers from the central Kazakh city of Arkalyk at 9:00 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) on that day. November 27 has been planned as a reserve day for the landing, the spokesman said.

Robert Pearlman

NASA release

NASA Television Will Air Next Soyuz Landing

NASA Television will air the Thanksgiving Day return to Earth of three crew members from the International Space Station.

Following its undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) at 7:23 p.m. and a four minute, 21 second deorbit burn at 9:55, Soyuz TMA-19 reentered Earth's atmosphere at 10:23. Recovery parachutes began opening nine minutes later, lowering the spacecraft to a touch down northeast of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk.

Working in frigid temperatures, recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and re-adjust to gravity.

Yurchikhin will return to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow. Wheelock and Walker will fly directly home to Houston, Texas.

The trio launched on Soyuz TMA-19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 15. As members of the Expedition 24 and 25 crews, they spent 163 days in space, 161 of them aboard the station, and celebrated the 10th anniversary of continuous human life, work and research by international crews aboard the station on Nov. 2.

During their mission, the crew members worked on more than 120 experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences.

The astronauts also responded to an emergency shutdown of half of the station's external cooling system and supported three unplanned spacewalks by Wheelock and Expedition 24 flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson to replace the faulty pump module that caused the shutdown. Their efforts restored the station's critical cooling system to full function.

The landing brings to a close Yurchikhin's third space flight and his second stay on the ISS. He was also an Expedition 15 flight engineer and STS-112 mission specialist. The Roscosmos cosmonaut has now logged more than a year in space with a total of 371 days.

Expedition 25 commander Doug Wheelock.

NASA astronaut Wheelock, who served as Expedition 25 commander, completed his second space flight with a career total of 178 days in space. In 2007, he was a mission specialist for the 15-day STS-120 flight of space shuttle Discovery.

This was the first mission for Walker, who is the first NASA astronaut native to Houston, Texas, home to the Johnson Space Center.

Still on the station are Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly and flight engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. ISS Expedition 26 began with the departure of Soyuz TMA-19.

NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, and Paolo Nespoli with the European Space Agency are scheduled to launch on Soyuz TMA-20 to the ISS on Dec. 15. They will dock and join its crew on Dec. 17.

Robert Pearlman

Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Robert Pearlman

NASA On-Orbit Status, Nov. 30

Soyuz 23S Reentry Anomaly

During landing on 11/26 (GMT), the Soyuz 23S Descent Module (SA) with the Exp-25 crew experienced an internal pressure anomaly which is currently under investigation.

After sealing of the internal hatch between the SA and the Orbital/Habitation Module (BO) by the Soyuz crew before undocking, the standard hatch leak check failed. After reopening and resealing the hatch, the leak rate stayed within allowable parameters, and 23S undocked.

Upon subsequent further depressurization of the BO (by opening valve KSD-BO) prior to BO-SA separation, the crew observed the same leak signature on the hatch as before, still within limits and without violating flight rules. The crew introduced oxygen into the cabin atmosphere (by opening valve ZPK-RD).

After module separation, air pressure in the Descent Module was maintained at the appropriate level with additional oxygen.

Because the BO-SA hatch did not pass the initial pre-undocking leak check and the SA module pressure decreased when the BO module was evacuated during descent, the hatch remains suspect.

TsUP-Moscow specialists are analyzing the anomaly and NASA engineers are awaiting further data.

music_space

I was very busy on the day of the landing, and I only read about it the day after, in Montreal's tabloid-format paper, which relies heavily on press agencies such as AP. The article mentioned a pressurization anomaly. So once at home, I check cS... and found no mention of an anomaly. I then searched the Web: nothing but a normal landing. I was beginning to think I had dreamt it all.